Triumph passengers head home as ship heads for repairs

Triumph passengers head home as ship heads for repairs

(CNN) — Carnival Triumph passengers scattered to the four (better smelling) winds Friday, headed anywhere and everywhere but back to the stinky, crippled ship where they were trapped for days.

By the busload, passengers arrived in New Orleans, Galveston and Houston, destined for flights or car trips that would take them home after the ill-fated trip — which went horribly wrong after an engine-room fire Sunday left the ship drifting, largely without power, in the Gulf of Mexico.

Among the arriving passengers in Galveston, Texas, were Tony and Jenny Larocca of Lake Charles, Louisiana, on their first trip away from the kids — a cruise that the husband got his wife for Christmas. Their souvenir? A bag of stinky clothes and a new appreciation for each other.

“There’s no way I could have made it without him,” Jenny Larocca said.